The embodiments described below relate to conductive surfaces and/or films with enhanced hardness properties and/or temperature stability.
Hardness is a measure of a material's ability to resist scratching and/or indentation. Materials with harder surfaces are often better able to withstand certain types of wear and damage, and thus are more durable and desirable in many applications. Conventional methods of enhancing the surface hardness of a material include depositing a hard layer on top of a softer surface. But when the surface needs to be accessible (e.g., because it has a certain property), covering the surface is not feasible. For example, an electrically conducting surface cannot be covered if future access to the surface is needed. Thus, there is a need for materials and/or films that have hard electrically conducting surfaces.
Likewise, there are many applications in which it is desirable to have inexpensive conductive films. Conventional conductive films, however, provide less than satisfactory temperature stability. One consequence of poor temperature stability is that the conductivity properties of such films are often destroyed when the films get too hot.